September 11, 2000
BGCT has no right to redefine Cooperative Program
seminary presidents say in response to Texas proposal
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___ DALLAS--Texas Baptists do not have the right to redefine the Cooperative Program and risk causing the destruction of the unified giving plan if they adopt changes recentlyproposed by a Texas committee, presidents of the six Southern Baptist Convention seminaries said Sept. 11.
___ They were reacting to a proposal by a Baptist General Convention of Texas theological education study committee that would reduce Texas funding of the SBC seminaries from $5.3 million this year to no more than $1 million next year. The recommendation is based on a six-month study that documented major shifts in the theology, philosophy and operation of the SBC schools.
___ Responses by SBC officials--including the seminary presidents--largely did not acknowledge those changes at the seminaries or the changes within the SBC as a whole over the last 20 years. Instead, SBC leaders pointed a finger toward Texans as the instigators of unnecessary change.
___ "The Cooperative Program is an agreement between the SBC and the state conventions," the presidents said in a 900-word statement issued jointly. "No state convention has the right to redefine this agreement unilaterally. The proposed BGCT action is a dagger thrust at the heart of the Cooperative Program. This is a sad day for all Southern Baptists, and a great tragedy for the BGCT."
___ Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., issued an additional personal statement on the seminary's website. In it, he criticized the Texas proposal as a "cold and calculated move designed to sever the historic ties between the Baptists of Texas and the Southern Baptist Convention."
___ "The defunding of the seminaries is a radical proposal with a transparent political agenda," Mohler continued. "The BGCT study committee declined the opportunity to conduct a genuine study of our institutions. Had they done so, they would have been forced to affirm the integrity and quality of our work and programs."
___ Morris Chapman, president and chief executive officer of the SBC Executive Committee, also weighed in against the changes, urging Southern Baptists in Texas to attend the state convention this fall and vote against the proposal.
___ "Tragically, anti-SBC leaders in the BGCT are now prepared to make the kind of recommendations that have the potential to cause hard feelings among Southern Baptists in Texas and split churches all across the state of Texas," he said.
___ SBC President James Merritt, a Georgia pastor, held a news conference at Southwestern Seminary Sept. 12 to condemn the Texas plan.
___ The BGCT is putting itself in a dangerous situation, he suggested. "What are they going to do if local churches begin to take the same attitude toward them they're taking toward the SBC?" he asked.
___ For example, local churches could say, "You know, we've got a lot of needs right here in our church; I'm not going to give any money to the BGCT. We've got more than enough projects right here."
___ He said such action would "destroy the whole spirit of cooperation that has made the Southern Baptist Convention what it has been and what the BGCT has been historically."
___ Ironically, Texas moderates in the past have been highly critical of Merritt and other pastors of conservative mega-churches for giving a relatively small percentage of their own money to the Cooperative Program. Merritt's church in suburban Atlanta recently increased its Cooperative Program giving to 3.96 percent of its $6 million in undesignated receipts, up from 1.25 percent as recently as 1997.
___ Besides the threat to the Cooperative Program, Merritt said he can't imagine why Texas Baptists might be concerned about the SBC seminaries.
___ "I frankly am at a loss as to why any Southern Baptists in Texas or any other state for that matter would not enthusiastically want to support what's going on in our six seminaries," he said.
___ BGCT leaders responded to the SBC leadership on several points.
___ "The Cooperative Program is not owned and operated exclusively by the Southern Baptist Convention in Nashville," said Bob Campbell, chairman of the BGCT theological education study committee. "To believe there is only one Cooperative Program is a fallacy."
___ Mike Chancellor, vice chairman of the study committee, said part of cooperation involves participation in decision making. "The Cooperative Program is about sending dollars, but it's also about stewardship in the spending of the dollars," he said.
___ The members of average Texas Baptist churches no longer are deemed acceptable to serve as trustees of SBC agencies because they do not adhere strictly to the politics of the denomination's leadership, Campbell and Chancellor said.
___ "Taxation without representation" was a common phrase heard in the committee, Campbell noted.
___ "The Executive Committee has led the SBC to go in directions not comfortable to mainstream Texas Baptists," said Bill Turner, a member of the BGCT Administrative Committee. "They have tightened and drawn lines and said, 'Here's where we are.' Texas Baptists are saying, 'Here's where we are, and it's not where you are.'"
___ Contrary to accusations that Texas Baptists are attempting to stir up denominational conflict, the opposite is true, said Clyde Glazener, BGCT president and pastor of Gambrell Street Baptist Church in Fort Worth--located across the street from Southwestern Seminary.
___ "This is not an effort to exacerbate the fight," he said. "This is an effort to take us out of it. … We have not moved. We've stayed where we were. … We're still where we've always been."
___ Further, Texas Baptist leaders were quick to point out that funds being redirected from the SBC would be applied to urgent mission needs in Texas, such as Hispanic ministries and church starting.
___ That prompted assertions by SBC leaders that Texas Baptists are concerned only with themselves.
___ "Evidently, the BGCT leadership is completely uninterested in and uncommitted to the support of theological education for anyone other than Texans and BGCT Texans at that," the seminary presidents said. "Their Great Commission horizon apparently ends at the Texas border."
___ BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade responded, however, that the influence of Texas seminaries will reach far beyond the state lines.
___ "These men and women will be ambassadors of Christ not only in Texas but around the world," Wade said. "Our vision is nothing less than the Great Commission--from Texas to the world."
___ Added Campbell: "We're not building Texas seminaries. We're building seminaries that will train people to go out around the world."
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